Parentage: ‘DI2’ is a seedling selection of unknown origin which resulted from an open-pollination and seedling selection process carried out by the inventor at a commercial breeding facility in Clarendon, NSW, Australia. In 2010, a number of unnamed Dietes bicolor seedlings, developed by the same inventor, were grown in close proximity to one another in order to encourage open cross pollination. In 2011, approximately 100 seeds were collected from these plants. The resulting seedlings were grown to maturity for further observation and, after the first flowering, a small number of plants were observed to produce fewer seeds by comparison with the original unnamed seedlings. One progeny in particular was observed to exhibit narrow foliage, in combination with reduced seed head production and very few seeds. This new and distinctive cultivar was given the name ‘DI2’.
Asexual Reproduction: ‘DI2’ was first asexually propagated in early 2011 by rhizome division in Clarendon, NSW, Australia and has since been asexually reproduced by meristematic tissue culture propagation. The distinctive characteristics of the inventive ‘DI2’ variety have proven to be stable through five generations and clones so produced maintain the distinguishing characteristics of the original plant.